The internet loves AleSmith

Among the world's favorite 100 beers, 11 are made in San Diego

Out of more than 18,500 breweries, hundreds of thousands of beer fans submitting reviews to RateBeer.com counted AleSmith the world's second best.

Beer-review website RateBeer.com released its annual accounting of the world's top brewers and beers, and San Diego breweries figured prominently. AleSmith was named number 2 on the list of Top Brewers in the World, Alpine Beer Company number 6. Ballast Point, Green Flash, Modern Times, and Port Brewing/Lost Abbey were counted among the top 100.

Based on "nearly a million" reviews from beer enthusiasts around the world, RateBeer calls its compilation of 2015 scores "the largest beer competition in the world ever." Breweries don't submit beers for review. Rather, RateBeer users rate and review individual beers throughout the year as they drink them, writing tasting notes and contributing to an aggregate score the site uses to rank them. While users range from amateurs to accredited beer judges, RateBeer points out that more than 50 times as many beers were scored in this de facto contest than professionally judged at this year's Great American Beer Festival.

The site claims more than 300,000 beers were assessed in 2015, produced by approximately 18,500 brewers worldwide. This means a preponderance of internet-savvy beer drinkers worldwide consider AleSmith the second-best beer producer on the planet, behind only Hill Farmstead Brewery, out of Vermont.

AleSmith was also credited with making the top beer in California — a bourbon-barrel-aged version of its acclaimed Speedway Stout made with Vietnamese coffee. Three of its beers made a list of the 100 Top Beers in the World, while Hill Farmstead had a whopping seven!

However, overall, San Diego dominated the top 100, placing 11 beers total. Port Brewing & The Lost Abbey combined for four, while Stone Brewing tallied two. Ballast Point and Alpine added one apiece. California breweries took 27 of the hundred top spots.

RateBeer also recognized the top performers in 20 beer styles, ranging from lagers to double IPAs. Fifteen beers were ranked best in each style: five gold, five silver, and five bronze.

AleSmith claimed three golds and seven medals overall, including a virtual sweep of the Strong Stout category with four variations of Speedway Stout. Port & The Lost Abbey earned two golds and five overall. Ballast Point claimed a gold and bronze, Green Flash one gold, and Alpine two silvers. Also recognized was Council Brewing, with two silvers for different fruited versions of its Beatitude tart saison.

Fifty Top New Beer Releases were also named, four of them local, including AleSmith's Velvet Speedway barrel-aged stout and Lost Abbey's Veritas 015 wild ale. Oceanside Ale Works was also recognized for its Funk-n-Delicious Bleuet wild ale, and so was Modern Times' City of the Dead, a stout that wasn't barrel-aged itself but made using barrel-aged coffee beans.

Out of more than 18,500 breweries, hundreds of thousands of beer fans submitting reviews to RateBeer.com counted AleSmith the world's second best.

Beer-review website RateBeer.com released its annual accounting of the world's top brewers and beers, and San Diego breweries figured prominently. AleSmith was named number 2 on the list of Top Brewers in the World, Alpine Beer Company number 6. Ballast Point, Green Flash, Modern Times, and Port Brewing/Lost Abbey were counted among the top 100.

Based on "nearly a million" reviews from beer enthusiasts around the world, RateBeer calls its compilation of 2015 scores "the largest beer competition in the world ever." Breweries don't submit beers for review. Rather, RateBeer users rate and review individual beers throughout the year as they drink them, writing tasting notes and contributing to an aggregate score the site uses to rank them. While users range from amateurs to accredited beer judges, RateBeer points out that more than 50 times as many beers were scored in this de facto contest than professionally judged at this year's Great American Beer Festival.

The site claims more than 300,000 beers were assessed in 2015, produced by approximately 18,500 brewers worldwide. This means a preponderance of internet-savvy beer drinkers worldwide consider AleSmith the second-best beer producer on the planet, behind only Hill Farmstead Brewery, out of Vermont.

AleSmith was also credited with making the top beer in California — a bourbon-barrel-aged version of its acclaimed Speedway Stout made with Vietnamese coffee. Three of its beers made a list of the 100 Top Beers in the World, while Hill Farmstead had a whopping seven!

However, overall, San Diego dominated the top 100, placing 11 beers total. Port Brewing & The Lost Abbey combined for four, while Stone Brewing tallied two. Ballast Point and Alpine added one apiece. California breweries took 27 of the hundred top spots.

RateBeer also recognized the top performers in 20 beer styles, ranging from lagers to double IPAs. Fifteen beers were ranked best in each style: five gold, five silver, and five bronze.

AleSmith claimed three golds and seven medals overall, including a virtual sweep of the Strong Stout category with four variations of Speedway Stout. Port & The Lost Abbey earned two golds and five overall. Ballast Point claimed a gold and bronze, Green Flash one gold, and Alpine two silvers. Also recognized was Council Brewing, with two silvers for different fruited versions of its Beatitude tart saison.

Fifty Top New Beer Releases were also named, four of them local, including AleSmith's Velvet Speedway barrel-aged stout and Lost Abbey's Veritas 015 wild ale. Oceanside Ale Works was also recognized for its Funk-n-Delicious Bleuet wild ale, and so was Modern Times' City of the Dead, a stout that wasn't barrel-aged itself but made using barrel-aged coffee beans.